


An Enigma Divulged

by Angelicalangie



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-09
Updated: 2010-06-09
Packaged: 2017-10-10 00:48:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelicalangie/pseuds/Angelicalangie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ianto is a bit more of an enigma that everyone first suspect, including Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Enigma Divulged

Ianto Jones was not all that he appeared to be. Even when he became Jack's lover he was more than the sum of his visible parts. He had always hidden a treasure trove of secrets. Not least the one secret that could end his life, at the hand of his lover. His revelation would unleash a rage that would rival the storms of gas giants, ferocious and unending it would seethe and boil and burn until there was nothing left but ashes of emotion and spirit.

So Ianto Jones continued his existence, hiding the truth carefully, whilst allowing just the merest of hints of his truths be known, allowing certain members of the team to think of him as the outsider, the underling; the puppet of Jack Harkness. If they knew just what Ianto knew, their opinions of him would radically alter; and he would lose the single most important person in his life. The man he had been sent to retrieve, to reveal the past to; or even possibly kill. As his thoughts raced to the last option he raised his eyebrows and snorted derision at the narrow minded foolishness of his superiors, as though he could kill the immortal Jack. They should have known better when he had survived so many years on Earth.

None of the team had ever been to his apartment. They had all posited their own ideas on what the omnipresent Ianto's apartment would look like. Always it was a variation on a theme. Spartan, simple; a single bed, possibly a television, a window, maybe two, a nod perhaps in concession to dietary requirements; always coffee on hand. There would be nothing personal to Ianto, no photographs or any clues to identity. What they would see would shock them though.

There was, in point of fact, nods to the 20th and 21st centuries, but for the most part the computer technology that resided in Ianto's small apartment would make Toshiko melt into a small pile of over excited goo. Of course there would be good reason. Almost all of this stuff had never made it to Torchwood through the cracks. Ianto had brought it with him. None of them would even recognise the basis of the tech. Hell the science that would make most of this possible would not be discovered either on this planet or until the 29th century. And even then, well to be truthful, it would remain a pipe dream for another five centuries.

Ianto Jones, Welsh in every way, if you included the fact that his Wales was a planet in a solar system many thousands of light years from this solar system into the equation, and that he was a time agent. He was younger than Jack. And he knew his true identity. He preferred the name Jack had chosen for himself though. It was much more representative of his personality.

He was sat at a pine table, bought from the Ikea not far from work, having picked up one of the many buses that stopped outside the millennium centre one night after work. Upon the table, was a cup of hot coffee, hinted with cinnamon and real cream as he liked to put it; and a file, a rather thick file that he had fingered many times, both before, and since the beginning of his mission. The man detailed within the folder was radically different from the man he now loved.

The man of many chronicles was reckless, inconsiderate; a man with a superiority complex and narcissistic. Overly confident would be another term. Ianto had not seen evidence of these traits since he had begun working with him. It was like his path as a person had been irrevocably altered, and it had, he had met the doctor. Ianto knew this, knew that whilst Jack loved him in a misbegotten manner, his real love was reserved for a man who would never settle, would never love him the way he wanted to be loved and who was hell bent on saving people. Jack, it seemed loved both heroics, and hero's. If he wasn't a romantic, Ianto didn't know what would constitute one.

Walking into work on Monday morning though showed that something was up, and people's perceptions of him had changed. He wasn't a fool, and he hadn't excelled at reading behaviour for nothing. Everyone sat at their stations whilst watching him out of the corner of their eyes. Something was most definitely up. He moved towards the kitchen when he heard his name yelled violently across the hub. Quickly turning his head he saw Jack's face, anger and betrayal filtering through his face, one following the other. Ianto closed his eyes, bit his lip and took a deep breath before moving into Jack's office.

"You lied. You said you weren't hiding anything from me." It was an accusation thrown violently from the older man's lips at the younger. "I thought my research on you was exhaustive. I was rereading your files, however and one thing became abundantly clear. There were holes, small ones; enough not to be noticed on their own," Jack sat down, whilst anger still filled him, defeat showed in his body posture. "Who are you Ianto Jones? If, that is your name." Hurt coloured his voice.

Looking at his lover he took a deep breath and wished he'd had the time to prepare for losing his lover, a man he really did love, and an emotion that was not part of his mission profile. None of the entanglements that had occurred in his life as a 21st century man had been.

"I'm not of this time, and you should recognise the style of the reports. You were the one who taught me how to write a convincing history." Confusion flittered across Jack's face. "You are missing two years of your life; I'm the poor fool who holds the key."

"You're an agent." It was quietly said, it made Ianto scared, a quiet Jack was a deadly Jack. "So what happened? Enlighten me, and whilst you're at it was anything that happened surrounding you REAL!" The juxtaposition of sound from calm to near screaming in seconds made Ianto jump and the others turn and look for the briefest of seconds before quickly going back to their busy work, not wishing to have Jack's ire directed their way also.

"Everything is real," He leaned across the table, seeing the betrayal in his lovers' eyes and meeting them as he spoke. "I am from the agency, and if I could find a way out of the agency without losing years of memory, I would. I was sent here. I was sent here to retrieve you, the others, my superiors, your former superiors think you are irrevocably changing the past, Sir."

"You still call me 'Sir'," It was said with derision. "As if you respect me enough for that title to be meant, Ianto."

"It is meant Jack. Everything I have ever said was meant." Ianto sat down at Jacks table, opposite hunched over, very different from his usual relaxed correctly postured form.

"You said; when we had to kill what was left of Lisa that you would watch me die. Was this what you meant?" Jack said. Deep within the older man a very human part of him was slowly dying, eroded by hurt, by his lovers' second betrayal. He loved him, of that there was no denying. How he was fooled, the manner in which he could never quite understand.

"At the time, I wanted nothing more than to reveal my real identity to you, we had been involved for so long, at the beginning it helped me keep Lisa hidden, later on it was because the lines had become blured and all that mattered was sense and you made sense to me. When you killed her, when you were so justly angry at me, and when I was so beaten emotionally I was amazed I could stand upright, you didn't make sense to me and my anchorage was gone," He exhaled the breath coming, shuddering out of him.

"I wanted you to feel the pain I felt. I plotted for a while. Then I took a look around me and at myself. I was the perfect agent wasn't I? I had become everything the agency wanted me to be. Willing to hurt the one person who; by that point, I was willing to forgive for just the slightest amount of warmth; of security, of love. Hell even affection." Ianto took another shuddering breath and Jack stared at the younger man, knowing some of what he was saying was true.

Knowing that betrayal could at times be a way of life for an agent, how else had he become so mercenary when the doctor had found him? He could understand Ianto now, but whether his bruised ego and broken heart could forgive him a second time. He couldn't hasten an estimate as to when or even if that ever could happen at that time.

"It was when I realised all these things," he continued, quieter with just the barest hint of restraint and urgency in his voice. "It was then that I realised I couldn't tell you. I was in love with you Jack, it wasn't about hurting you, and it became more about protecting you from the truth. Then it became about hope for a future, one with you, a happier future than what I have now, constantly concerned about the agency, about you finding out, about losing you Jack."

Jack sat back in his chair. He had never known Ianto be so forthright so open with his feelings. "They want me back?" Jack looked at Ianto, sitting opposite him, hunched almost completely over, head in hands. "They think I am changing time? They couldn't be more wrong. We will deal with them when or even if they ever think to dealing with this situation. You have been here how long now, and you haven't even seen one agent and you of all people would know one if you saw them."

"The agency, after you left it, after all the happenings surrounding you, became fractured. You were a divisive element, the poster boy who was more than what his looks let on. The superiors we had may not even be in power anymore. Your divisiveness was so powerful, your arguments held such sway that a coup rose up. Battle broke out and there were not many supporters of the agency left. At the time I still supported it. But now, well, having met you and the way you operate. You were right."

Jack laughed, him, a divisive element to the now once almighty time agency. Well that was news to him. "I don't remember the last two years of the agency. I don't know what caused the divisions, or the apparent coup."

"Not surprised, they mind wiped you, they wanted to start over again with you, they felt they still could use you to quell the ever growing coup. Only you took off before they could. I am glad of it." Ianto smiled sheepishly.

"What was it that made them mind wipe me?" Jack said finally.

"You opposed them, there were times you played fast and loose with the truth with them, you had a degree of compassion even then, you lied to save others, it was always about the others. You believed that you should have some degree of autonomy from them, that because you were on the front line of it all, you understood better than those who sat in exalted positions distant and cold from events ever could. You believed that agents should have their own lives. That you shouldn't have to report back on every detail of your waking life, they didn't agree with it. You really did kick up a stink about it." Ianto Stood up from the desk and circled around his own chair putting more distance between himself and Jack.

"A lot of people began agreeing and then you disappeared. The agency took you under the radar, they wiped your mind. Then you took off, angry and scared from all accounts, it's understandable. It took two years to find you, you were in war torn London, a con man and vastly different to who you had once been in terms of compassion, and again you disappeared. When finally they found you the agency as we both knew it was nearing the end of its shelf life," Ianto laughed, the very thing they thought they could prevent by getting a hold of Jack and 'reprogramming" him, was the one thing they couldn't control.

"They sent me, to bring you back, to make things right to stop you from helping the humans of this time. Only the more I saw how things worked in your vision of the world, how normal and humane and considered everyone was, how much respect there was, I saw they were wrong and you were right." Ianto stood slightly hunched, legs apart and hands on the back of the chair, head bowed, breathing slowly. He heard Jack stand and internally he braced himself for the oncoming onslaught of betrayal.

"I don't remember any of it," It was spoken so quiet on an exhalation of breath Ianto at first was unsure if he heard it at all. "All I do know is that you lied to me. I asked you if there was anything you were keeping from me. Damn it Ianto, do you not trust me?" Jack said it in such frustrated tones that Ianto was forced to look at Jack, forced to take in the slumped posture and hurt in his lovers' eyes. Each one a knife strike to his heart and soul.

"Knowing all that I knew of you after the mind wipe, of your behaviour during your escape. I didn't know if I would end up dead or worse. You became unpredictable, I didn't know really what was good for the preservation of my neck," Ianto straightened up and looked at the older man.

"Don't tempt me." Jack was puzzled. He knew torture he knew a lot of things. He knew how far he could go and he was wondering if the doctor had been right to view him with such suspicious eyes the first time he had seen him. "Every time I think I know you, you up and turn the tables on me, first with Lisa," Jack looked at Ianto, saw the pain flicker across his face and felt something more than anger towards the younger man. "Now this who are you Ianto Jones, where are you from. Is there anything else you are hiding and how can I tell if you are telling the truth?"

"You know almost everything now. I'm Welsh; I am from Wales, just a planet that people who originated from the country settled on. I refuse to divulge my age, you know my name, and I never lied about that." Ianto felt like he was pleading his case. "All the important parts of me, you know them. There are no more hidden parts of me." Ianto looked at Jack and saw the man weighing possibilities. He knew that at this junction it would be a bad move to push Jack for an indication as to what his thoughts were. He allowed him the time to make whatever immediate decision he wanted to make.

Tense minutes passed between the two lovers, neither making any moves, one not trusting himself as to what actions he would make, the other allowing the elder space to think. Neither made large movements; neither sat, neither straightened. Jack moved is hands into a clasped position and brought his fingers to his mouth, looking through his eyelashes at Ianto, who stood still slightly hunched almost ready to be set upon by fires of fury. Instead it was a small gesture that let Ianto know there was still a future for their relationship as Jack spoke.

"I think it best if you show Gwen how to use the coffee machine before you go on a five day leave, I'll say something about a family commitment." Jack returned to his desk and sat down. Ianto turned and left Jacks office, walking down the stairs before going to Gwen's station and making mention of needing to show her something and that Jack would explain why.

Jack had watched the younger man walk out of his office; he had expelled a breath that he hadn't known he had been holding. The expectation of cheating was unfulfilled, but was replaced by the knowledge of the agency's demise, of his mind wipe, something he knew only pieces of, its' not being all that successful at wiping his two years.

Jack watched him walk out a little later, knowing Gwen was not going to live up to the instructions, and that he had terrible coffee to look forward to for the next five days. Jack already felt loneliness creep over him, the knowledge that come what may, he belonged with Ianto. Even though he had hidden things and had betrayed him.

Ianto hated seeing Gwen touch his beloved coffee machine, but it was either this or the dreaded synthetic coffee of Starbucks or any one of the other degenerate bastard son's of corporate capitalism. Gwen was more than happy when he showed her how to use the machine, but he knew that his return would be heralded as the return of decent coffee and sanity once more. He looked around the hub once more, silently bidding both it, and the pterodactyl a farewell until his return as he walked out of the hub he knew that Jack was watching him, he felt too, the sensation of being touched at the elbow as he had been in Jack's office, the touch of reassurance, of Jack telling him everything was going to be ok between them on his return.


End file.
